of human or animal heads. These exhibit a
remarkably advanced skill in modelling, and are more like Greek work
of the 6th century B.C. Apart from the technique they have nothing in
common with the Egyptian importations so often found in Mycenaean
tombs.

In a subsequent period (8th-7th century B.C.) Egyptian objects in
faience became a common import into Greek cities, such as those of
Rhodes, and to a less degree in Sardinia and southern Italy, through
the commercial medium of the Phoenicians. Flasks of faience occur in
the Polledrara tomb at Vulci (610-600 B.C.) and similar vases with a
pale green glaze at Tharros in Sardinia in tombs of the same date. In
Rhodes, small flasks and jars are found ornamented with friezes of men
and animals in relief, or imitating in colour and design the glass
vessels of the Phoenicians. It also seems probable that the Greeks of
Rhodes and other centres attempted the imitation of this ware (see
fig. 19), for we find faience _aryballi_ or globular oil-flasks
modelled in the form of helmeted heads or animals, which are purely
Greek in style.

[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Enamelled pottery from tombs in Rhodes, made
under Egyptian influence.]

In the Hellenistic period the fashion was revived at Alexandria, and
under the Ptolemies large jugs of blue-enamelled faience with figures
in relief and bearing the names of reigning sovereigns were made and
exported to the Cyrenaica and to southern Italy. Two of these are in
the British Museum (Egyptian department). The same collection includes
a very beautiful glazed vase in the form of Eros riding on a duck,
found in a tomb at Tanagra, but undoubtedly of Alexandrine make, and a
head of a Ptolemaic queen, with a surface of bright blue glaze.

Subsequently in the 1st century B.C., this so-called porcelain ware
was replaced by a variety of ware characterized by a brilliantly
coloured glaze coating, in which the presence of lead is often
indicated. This ware was principally made at three centres; at Tarsus
in Asia Minor, at Alexandria and at Lezoux in central Gaul. But it was
probably also made in western Asia Minor and in Italy. It is not
confined to vases, being also employed for lamps and small figures;
the vases are usually of small size, in shapes imitated from metal
(Plate II., fig. 59). The colour of the glaze varies from a deep green
to bright yellow, and the inside of a v